Schürrle sets new goal for Leverkusen

Friday 9 November 2012 8.09 CET

Bayer 04 Leverkusen's 3-0 UEFA Europa League victory over SK Rapid Wien represented a fifth consecutive win for the Bundesliga side, and André Schürrle, scorer of his team's brilliant second effort, is determined they capitalise on their impressive form after sealing a knockout berth. He and team-mate Simon Rolfes insist only top spot in Group K will suffice as they look ahead to their final two matches. In the Rapid camp, meanwhile, dejected captain Stefan Kulovits admits that for the Austrian club, still without a point, the target now is to restore dented pride.

André Schürrle, Leverkusen forwardThe first half was tough. We made the perfect start with the early goal, but after that we somehow failed to put Rapid under enough pressure and, in the end, we were a little lucky they didn't score. However, in the second half I felt we responded very well, got the two extra goals and deservedly won. We're playing well right now and creating chances. Now we're looking forward to the final two games, even though we're already through. We absolutely want to win the group in order to hopefully avoid some of the really top teams. However, it's also a great opportunity for the younger players in the squad, if they are given their chance, to experience European football and they will certainly learn a lot from it.

Simon Rolfes, Leverkusen midfielderWe've succeeded in achieving our initial goal, but now we're looking to the next step and finishing first in the group. To do that, we have to take something against Metalist [in Ukraine on 22 November]. Despite a spell in the first half when we weren't quite on top of the game, we played with a good level of concentration and, from my perspective, deserved the win. Now we're just looking forward to the next game and maintaining this level of performance.

Stefan Kulovits, Rapid midfielderWe didn't take our chances tonight – in fact it's been the same in all four games in the Europa League. We demanded a lot from ourselves going into this game and had belief too. But, at this level, when you don't finish off the opportunities you have and if you defend set pieces as we did this evening, then you have a problem, particularly against a team of Leverkusen's quality. At present, we're still without a point in the group and, therefore, we still have something to play for in the final games. We definitely want to take three points against Rosenborg and overtake them in the table. We can still reach third place and that is our target.

Terrence Boyd, Rapid forwardWe're very disappointed. I don't think we actually played that badly, certainly not as badly we did in the home game against Leverkusen. We imposed ourselves more and created chances, but in the end we leave having lost the game 3-0, so it's disappointing. It's a shame we didn't at least take a point. What encourages me is that we know we'll get better. We've got a young team and we can learn a lot against opponents like Leverkusen. I hope we can at some point perform at that kind of level. But now we have to show in the last two games that we have learned something, and we have to get some points on the board.